A Buy recommendation has recently been issued to insurance company Aegon N.V. (AEG) by Zacks senior financial sector analyst Duong Vuong, CFA.  Here's what his latest update stated:

'We are maintaining our Buy recommendation on Aegon after the recent market sell-off. While the current environment will be challenging for investment portfolios, fundamentally little has changed as the company is not facing capital shortages and the value of new business has been increased by 14%. We think that at the current multiple, the stock is at a significant discount to its peers.

'Aegon experienced no impairments in its sub-prime investment holdings during the last reported quarter. Moreover, it has been able to buy businesses from troubled firms. The company has also further strengthened its distribution channel in Spain and is entering new growth areas such as Mexico, India and China.

'At a multiple of 7.2x our current 2007 EPS and 0.9x book, the stock is trading at multiples significantly below the average of that of its peers of 8x 2007 EPS and 1.3x book. As such, fundamentally we think that there will be potential gain for the stock in the near-term. We believe that the dividend is safe, and the fact that the interim dividend has been increased by 25% gives us some confidence. Our six-month target price is $20.'